Popular television show Succession on HBO is drawing to a close after four seasons. It’s creator Jesse Armstrong made the announcement in an interview with the New Yorker on Feb 23.
“You know there’s a promise in the title of Succession. I’ve never thought this could go on forever. The end has always been kind of present in my mind. From Season 2, I’ve been trying to think: ‘Is the next one, or the one after that, or is it the one after that?”, said Armstrong who admitted that it was a difficult decision to end the show.
Just before the fourth season, “I sort of said, ‘Look, I think this maybe should be it. But what do you think?’ And we played out various scenarios. We could do a couple of short seasons. Or we could go on for ages and turn the show into something rather different, and be a more rangy, freewheeling kind of fun show, where there would be good weeks and bad weeks. Or we could do something a bit more muscular and complete, and go out sort of strong.
“And that was definitely always my preference. And the decision to end solidified through the writing and even when we started filming: I said to the cast, I’m not a hundred percent sure, but I think this is it.’ Because I didn’t want to bullshit them either.”
HBO Awards
Succession has won the Emmy Award twice for Outstanding Drama Series, along with other accolades. It’s fourth season will start on March 26. HuffPost reports that the season will continue with the Roy siblings banding together to escape Logan Roy while he negotiates to sell the family’s media empire Waystar Rocco to entrepreneur Lukas Mattson.
Armstrong said he had no intention of stringing the audience along with a possibility of a fifth season on HBO.
“We could have said it at the end of the season. I quite like that idea, creatively because then the audience is just able to enjoy everything as it comes, without trying to figure things out, or perceiving things in a certain way once they know it’s the final season.
But also, the countervailing thought is that we don’t hide the ball very much on the show. I feel a responsibility to the viewership, and I personally wouldn’t like the feeling of, ‘Oh, that’s it guys. That was the end.’ I wouldn’t like that in a show. I think I would like to know it is coming to an end.
“Hopefully the show is against bullshit, and I wouldn’t like to be bullshitting anyone when I was talking about it.”
Helen Mirren talks about DC’s film Fury of the Gods, says plot is too complex